and moisturizing cream

that works according

to scientists

and has a scientific consensus behind it.

I've been doing a lot of research on the beauty industry,

including finishing this great science book about your skin,

the remarkable life of the skin.

And I've realized there's a lot

of misinformation out there about products.

So we're gonna sit down

with my partner Mitch because he didn't really know

or use skin creams

to see if he can actually pick

and choose which ones are more effective

and teach you how to actually read the ingredients lists

of these beauty products

to understand from a scientific perspective,

which ones work.

So starting in your early 20s,

you lose roughly 1% of your collagen per year.

- Okay, so like a lot of it is gone.

- Yeah when we are in our 30s collagen is the protein

that gives your skin strength

and plumpness

and things that in our society we deem as good as

this collagen disappears,

that's when you get wrinkles.

- I'm not that aware of wrinkles,

but I feel like after this video,

that's all I'm gonna think about.

I have one here and I have two here.

Like I sleep on my face like that,

like literally like.

- Every morning you wake up next to me,

its literally like you know when someone's so dehydrated,

like somehow

in the night you become the most dehydrated person

on the planet.

And you wake up with like lines everywhere like,

(Mitch whooshes)

and I'm just what now you have wrinkles.

(Mitch laughs)

- I'm literally trying

to make a beauty video about being snatched

and you're calling out my most vulnerable part of the day.

In order to understand skin cream,

you must first understand the largest organ

in your body your skin.

The hypodermis holds the sweat glands,

fat cells and the base of hair follicles.

Next we have the dermis which contains collagen fibers

of which we will be talking a lot about today,

and the sebaceous gland which secretes natural oils.

Next we have the epidermis which starts

with the stratum basale right

on top of the dermis consisting

of stem cells that continuously divide,

creating your skin cells known as keratinocytes.

Next is the stratum spinosum where the keratinocytes link up

then it is the stratum granulosum

where the keratinocytes flaten,

lose their fats

and nucleus then reach the outermost layer

of the skin the stratum corneum which is now,

the effectively dead cells

at the outermost layer of your skin.

The epidermis is so thin,

only one millimeter but it is your main barrier

to the outside world.

And a lot of the BS from skincare products is because

this layer is actually so effective

at keeping the active ingredients

in creams out of your body.

So I'm gonna bring out two creams

at a time you are gonna try

and decipher which one you think is better.

- I'm just trying to figure out which ones

are like more BS versus which one

has like maybe more legitimacy.

- claims slash ingredients that would actually help my skin.

- Yes, exactly.

- My skin okay, now my BS detector is on.

- So your first two creams are right here,

we have the London

and rant Collagen Moisturizer. Oh my god I've always wanted

to do the beauty thing what do they do?

(Narrator mumbles)

or the Bluelene Revolutionary Anti-aging Cream

with methylene blue.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Uuuuh probably a sign

that it's worse for you,

and I've never heard

of methylene blue or,

oryza sativa it's like isn't

that a strain of marijuana. (Narrator laughs)

- Rice bran oil,

my honest like evaluation if I was

to see these both

and guess which is either more legit or,

better for you would be this one.

(bell rings)

- If you ever find a cream

that has collagen in it,

or a face mask with collagen in it,

that you're topically applying to your skin,

it's 100% BS.

(Mitch quips)

- Collagen...

- isnt that what everything says?.

- A lot of things it's crazy it's actually,

look at

this one gold collagen so there's literally flakes of gold

in this,

24 Karat Eye Cream this is called

with collagen.

There's a lot of things

that claim collagen to help with wrinkles,

but the molecule itself is too large

to actually go through your epidermis,

what we were talking about earlier the keratinocytes,

it does not get through.

So anything with collagen,

do not ever buy.

When you read the ingredients

of this methylene blue one.

It has glycerin pretty high up.

Glycerin is a really important molecule

for moisturizing your face.

It actually keeps the fluids

in and on your face.

So if you are looking for a moisturizer

and you want a cheap one

for example look

at the ingredients list if glycerin is high up

that will be a pretty good moisturizer

this has glycerin at ingredient number three

this has glycerin at ingredient number like six Not only is

it like BS with the collagen it's not even

that moisturizing it's a much worse cream bye London

and Grant.

(Mitch giggles)

its like we broke our floor

- It's claiming anti aging

in its actual packaging,

from methylene blue.

There's no scientific claims behind methylene blue helping

with anti aging

at all that's purely a tactic

to get you to buy this also not only

that but moisturizer in

and of itself is not anti aging.

There's no scientific claims behind moisturizer helping

with any anti aging when it comes

to wrinkles or photo aging of your skin.

So next you have the Bluelene versus

this Pure Vitamin C La Roche Posay.

- Okay I thought it was a lacquer

and I was like they have a face cream?

- So this one retails

at 59 Canadian dollars is more expensive.

This is a fancy fancy thing.

- In big writing anti-wrinkle concentrate,

renovating anti- oxidant.

- Okay, so..

- Renovating?

- We're going in,

we're renovating the face, aaah!

- ewww!

- Looks like (indistinct).

Ahhh!

- Ewwh

- So it...

- Uuuh!

- It really smells like foundation to me,

like liquid foundation.

- Oh, I love the smell.

- There's something about

this first one that I just like really liked?

And do we know like vitamin C is

that the vitamin we want in our skin?

This is what these companies need to do.

It should be regulated,

they need to say what that is doing.

I honestly think I'm gonna stick

with the Bluelene just cause I liked it more.

And I feel like these claims

and these terms are not as clear

to me and it just seems like they're saying things

that would convince someone that doesn't know.

- Okay, you're right.

(Mitch celebrates)

- This is still the superior cream. Good job..

- Hashtag not sponsored, though.

- So antioxidants are something

that are claimed on a lot of products

that people are buying,

there is not a scientific consensus

that antioxidants will help with anti aging.

- Topically.

- Topically applying vitamin C is an anti-oxidant.

And what is important to know,

is that as you read in here,

the second ingredient bran oil also has two types

of vitamin E in it,

which are anti-oxidants.

So this is claiming mostly only

that it has vitamin C,

which is an anti-oxidant.

This cream has more moisturizing properties.

And actually,

a second ingredient is a vitamin E anti-oxidant.

- So it's already got one that's claiming without even..

- exactly without having to write it all over.

- It's being subtle.

- Yeah,

- Its like, "Dah I'm not gonna brag."

- It's kind of funny because they're advertising

this methylene blue thing,

which is actually the BS part of this.

So now I want to get into the idea

of claims and language

on this packaging,

you're allowed to say a lot more misleading things

on skin creams than you are on safe food.

It's just it's just a less regulated industry.

So here it says dermatologist tested for safety.

Okay, so first of all,

everything is tested for safety.

Like that's a weird thing

that they're claiming.

But if something says dermatologically tested,

that just means a dermatologist had

to test it,

it doesn't mean that the results were saying

that it was doing anything,

it doesn't actually mean

that like it's essentially a good cream.

That's a really interesting sentence you can put

on packaging,

and it's it's meaningless.

- I hate that.

- I know,

it's crazy and clinically proven.

There's no regulation

on what that clinical study could be.

Technically,

you could make a cream,

you could go to any clinic,

you could test it on one person,

your best friend,

and then you could write clinically proven.

- What?

- yes, there's no regulating body

to say if something is clinically proven or not.

They're not technically lying.

- Sneaky.

- And even here,

that's it says a renowned antioxidant,

which we now know

with something called Neurosensine.

And then when you look it up,

it's a chemical that this company has created.

And there's not really any clear information

on what exactly it is.

And there's definitely no clear scientific information

that it does anything.

(narrator chuckles)

Active ingredient,

is another important one active ingredient,

again, it sounds really great to your ears.

But that could only be in vitro

that could be in a petri dish that could be on rats.

It doesn't have to ever be on humans,